Feeling very happy that The Divine Life Society (library) founded by Swami Sivananda has accepted my gratitude offering of my book, "Who am I? I am I ..."
Last updated on 19th March 2019
A few days ago, I wrote an email to the General Secretary of The Divine Life Society (DLS), Shivanandnagar, near Rishikesh, Uttarakhand, India, offering to send a copy of my first self-published book on spirituality and God & Science to them as expression of my gratitude to their institution.
Their website, http://www.dlshq.org/, carries this message at the top:
"SERVE, LOVE, GIVE, PURIFY, MEDITATE, REALISE
So Says Sri Swami Sivananda Saraswati Maharaj".
Extracts of my mail to them are given below:
I have benefited significantly by reading the books and magazines that have been published by The Divine Life Society. I take this opportunity to thank The Divine Life Society for that service that they rendered to me then.
...
As an expression of my gratitude to The Divine Life Society, I would like to send a free printed (paperback) copy of my book to your library ...
-- end extracts --
My book is this one: "Who am I? I am I - Ultimate Existential Reality Answer; Vedanta; God and Science conversation", https://www.amazon.in/dp/B07K7M2963 (free ebook available on iami1.wordpress.com).
I was overjoyed to receive a response from them a few days later stating that I could send the book to them and that it will be placed in their library.
I wrote them: "Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to express my gratitude to The Divine Life Society by sending a copy of my book on spirituality and God & Science to your library."
I organized ordering a copy for them.
On 15th March 2019 (yesterday), I got a confirmation from the General Secretary of The Divine Life Society (DLS) that the book has been received and that it will be placed in their library for readers. The mail also said, "May god bless you."
Extracts from my mail response to the General Secretary (DLS) are given below:
Dear sir/madam,
My humble pranams!
Thank you so much for your blessings!
Thank you very much for informing me that the book has been received and will be placed in your esteemed library for your readers.
My prayers to Almighty God to continue showering Grace and blessings on your esteemed institution of The Divine Life Society which has been founded by the highly revered Swami Sivananda Saraswati.
...
It is a matter of great satisfaction for me that my humble offering of gratitude was accepted to be placed in the library of your esteemed and revered institution, and I would like to publicly mention the same.
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I again thank The Divine Life Society for kindly accepting my gratitude offering.
Note that the founder of DLS is Swami Sivananda (born 1887, died 1963) and is the same Swami Sivananda that Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, my beloved & revered Gurudev, visited in 1957 in Rishikesh.
Given below are pics of Swami Sivananda and Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba in 1957 (in Rishikesh, one presumes).
Above pic courtesy: https://sathyasaiwithstudents.blogspot.com/2013/06/swami-visits-badrinath-part-2.html
Above pic courtesy: Saibhakta Brasil, https://www.pinterest.com/pin/444589794453981343
Small extracts are given below from Swami Sivananda's wiki page, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sivananda_Saraswati:
Sivananda Saraswati (or Swami Sivananda; 8 September 1887 – 14 July 1963) was a Hindu spiritual teacher and a proponent of Yoga and Vedanta. Sivananda was born Kuppuswami in Pattamadai, in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu. He studied medicine and served in British Malaya as a physician for several years before taking up monasticism. He lived most of his life near Muni Ki Reti, Rishikesh.
...
Swami Sivananda was born Kuppuswamy on Thursday, September 8, 1887, during the first hours of the morning, with Bharani star rising in Pattamadai village on the banks of Tamraparni river in Tirunelveli district, Tamil Nadu. His father, Sri P.S. Vengu Iyer, worked as a revenue officer, and was a great Shiva Bhakta (Bhakti) himself. His mother, Srimati Parvati Ammal, was a very religious woman. Kuppuswamy was the third and last child of his parents[4][5].
[Wiki References:
4. http://sivanandaonline.org/public_html/?cmd=displaysection§ion_id=1645
5. http://www.yogaesoteric.net/content.aspx?item=3658&lang=EN
end Wiki References]
--- end wiki extract ---
My brother-in-law (elder sister's husband) and his father and grandfather hail from the same Pattamadai area that Swami Sivananda hailed from. When I checked about this with my brother-in-law, he wrote (slightly edited):
"Yes you are right. My parents and grandparents are from Pattamadai and nearby villages. I have done a year at Pattamadai school wherein my parents studied. Swamiji’s Madam (spiritual centre) is there in Pattamadai and also a hospital is established and running."
Here's a small related video: Pattamadai, the birth place of H.H. Sri Swami Sivananda Maha, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsJZE4q5Qo8, 1 min. 54 secs.
A video about the hospital: Swami Sivananda Charity Hospital, Pattamadai, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s5htpCoEUk, 8 min. 6 secs.
I would like to add a little more information about my exposure to DLS and to Swami Sivananda Saraswathi. I read some magazines and books of DLS that were available at a family friends' home in Dombivli (near Mumbai and in Thane district, Maharashtra) in the early 1980s - I was also living in Dombivli then. I think that was my first exposure to DLS and to Swami Sivananda Saraswathi. One person of this family was a young person then (referred to as R), slightly older to me, who had done M.Tech. (Comp. Sc.) from an IIT (I think it was IIT Bombay) and was working with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tata_Consultancy_Services, and who was also into DLS. I think I may have been quite impressed by the fact that this person, R, with top-notch technical qualifications and who was well placed in a top software company in India then (in 1980s), was reverential towards DLS.
I am even now in touch with this family who now are based in Bengaluru/Bangalore. I had visited them in Bangalore some years back. A few months back, R's mother accompanied a Sai university alumnus' family who are their neighbours, on a visit to Puttaparthi. R's mother stayed for some hours in my flat and we had a wonderful time discussing many things. I was also able to offer with gratitude my book to R's mother and through her to others in R's family including R.
I informed R of DLS library graciously accepting my book for their library. R wrote back that it was great to hear that. He also wrote, "Sivananda Ashram is a holy place. I had the good fortune of visiting the Ashram in 1983 or 84 and stayed there for 2-3 days."
R also wrote, "It is really heartening to know that your book will be kept in the DLS library."
BTW, if I recall correctly, it was R who told me sometime in late 1983 or early 1984 about an advertisement for trainee programmers by Datamatics, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datamatics, (in Mumbai) in Times of India newspaper (if I recall correctly), which was open for graduates of science (and perhaps commerce too) and engineering streams. I had dropped out of my M.Sc. due to financial issues and so was a science graduate (B.Sc. Physics). Usually at that time, companies like TCS limited entry level programmer positions to engineering graduates or science (and commerce too perhaps) post-graduates. I applied to Datamatics, tried to ensure that my application was properly received, cleared the written exam and interview, and got the trainee programmer job starting in March 1984 with a 3 year bond period including an initial period of around 4 months of only training. This Datamatics software developer trainee job put me on my commercial software developer and later software consultant career for around 18 and a half years (March 1984 to Aug. 2002). After that I moved to Puttaparthi to focus on a spiritual career under the overall guidance of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba with me offering free service (Seva) from Jan. 2003 to Mar 2012 of teaching software lab. courses, providing technical guidance to M.Tech. (Comp. Sc.) project work of students, and, for initial period of 5 years, contributing to managing a software lab., in the Sai university.
I take this opportunity to thank R and his parents, and family in general, for the kindness and love they gave me over the years, which also includes an important part of my exposure to Swami Sivananda and Divine Life Society's books and magazines.
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Thought I should also add a couple of screenshots of mail from DLS to me confirming receipt of book and that it will be placed in DLS library.
[To open pic in higher resolution, right-click on pic followed by open link (NOT image) in new tab/window. In new tab/window you may have to click on pic to zoom in.]
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I felt it appropriate to share this here:
Swami Sivananda of Divine Life Society said, "There is no book in the whole world that is so thrilling, soul-stirring and inspiring as the Upanishad. The philosophy taught by the Upanishads has been the source of solace for many, both in the East and the West. The human intellect has not been able to conceive of anything more noble and sublime in the history of the world than the teachings of the Upanishads." [From http://www.dlshq.org/religions/upanishads.htm]
On my Facebook post (link given below), a person commented on the above quote of Swami Sivananda, as follows: "It’s noteworthy that His Holiness SS surgically highlighted the Upanishads, rather than the Vedas of which they are a part [Smiley-icon]"
I (Ravi) responded (slightly edited): --Name-snipped-- sir - Swami Sivananda was a medical doctor trained in Allopathy (Western science medicine), who also ran a medical journal, and who practised medicine in India and in British Malaya (which I think is today's Malaysia), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sivananda_Saraswati#Early_life. I think that may have led him to be more comfortable with Vedanta (Upanishads and sometimes Aranyakas) as against the initial part of the Vedas, the Karma Kanda composed of Samhitas and Brahmanas.
My own experience as a student of science - Physics mainly - in college, and in my commercial career as a practitioner of software development where logical analysis and logical approach to problem solving are absolutely vital requirements for success, has been that from an intellectual point of view, Vedanta was, and continues to be, very attractive to me. Note that many Western science greats like Erwin Schrodinger, Werner Heisenberg and Robert Oppenheimer had praised Vedanta and/or Bhagavad Gita, https://detechter.com/6-famous-international-physicists-who-were-influenced-by-hinduism/. So when one read or discussed Vedanta and/or Bhagavad Gita, one was in some sort of hallowed company of some of the science greats of the 20th century.
In my case, it was only after I came under the influence of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba's written works, books on him, and then my association with Sathya Sai orgn. and later my Seva at Prasanthi Nilayam in the presence of physical form Bhagavan, that I started focusing on the Samhita and Brahmana part of the Vedas. Note that as I was following Tamil (Kerala Iyer) Brahmin culture rituals for a good part of my life, I was already exposed to some part of the Veda through these rituals! But while I had read books on Vedanta I had not read books on Karma Kanda of Vedas then. [Note that reading small books on Sandhyavandanam, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandhyavandanam, the daily ritual supposed to be done by the Brahmin whose Upanyanam has been done, is different. Those are stand alone and small books.]
Sathya Sai and the Sai organization and PN ashram that he founded, played a vital role in me getting a more balanced understanding of the Vedas with respect for all parts of it - Samhita, Brahmana, Aranyaka and Upanishads - and the vital role all these parts of the Vedas play for nourishment and nurturing of Hindu communities. Worship of God through Karma Kanda of Vedas which I think typically involves prayers for material benefits, is a very important part of the Vedas, especially for householders (Grihasta Ashramis). The renunciate/monastic type may focus on Vedanta but the renunciate depends on the support provided by householders, with these householders being nourished and nurtured by the Karma Kanda of the Vedas (from a Hindu community perspective). So even the renunciate or monk who is focused on Vedanta is being indirectly nourished and nurtured by the Karma Kanda of the Vedas! Jai Sai Ram!
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Given below are some comment exchanges from my Facebook post, https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2439645719585324, associated with this post :
In response to comment, "Can you please share more about the links between Swami Sivananda and Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba?", I (Ravi) wrote (slightly edited):
This is the main article (having a relevant extract from Sathyam Shivam Sundaram) that I have seen on the web about Sathya Sai visit to Sivananda ashram: http://www.saibaba.ws/articles/saibabasivananda.htm.
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In response to comment, "Moment of great pride & joy! Om Sri Sai Ram!", I wrote: Thanks sir for sharing my joy. Jai Sai Ram!
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In response to comment, "Wonderful indeed are the mysterious ways in which life’s paths take us.", I wrote: Very insightful remark, sir! Thanks a lot!
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In response to comment, "Congratulations sir! A big recognition indeed!", I wrote (slightly edited): Thank you so much, --Name-snipped-- sir.
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I also received private email messages congratulating me. I thanked them for it.
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